K.Mandla's blog of Linux experiences

So predictable

For about a week I’ve been staring at a message from the ports system on my Crux Linux machine, that tells me that the xorg-server package on this machine is ready to jump to version 1.6.0.

I’ve been staring at it partly because I didn’t want to take the time to build it. But I’ve also been staring at it because I knew what it meant.

I knew what it meant because I went through the same fiasco three or four months ago, when the X people decided it was a good idea to move to 1.5.3. That’s when the siliconmotion video driver suddenly became the electronic equivalent of a bowl of cold lima beans — perfectly worthless and utterly unappealing.

But I took the plunge today and went ahead and built it. And of course, on my return this afternoon, starting the system left me at the console prompt, with the X server claiming it couldn’t find anything to connect to.

I so totally knew that was going to happen.

But to be totally honest, I partly wanted it to happen. Ever since I made the switch to console programs plus Awesome, I’ve been waiting (perhaps a little mean-spiritedly) for the other shoe to drop, and now it has. I’ve been wanting something to go wrong with X, knowing full well that it wouldn’t hamper me in the slightest.

Which it hasn’t. I have screen running on tty2 with elinks, charm, mocp and mc all taking orders in turn. The music is still playing, the Web is still accessible, and unless someone sends me an image that requires my immediate viewing, I’m no worse off than I was eight hours ago, when I typed prt-get sysup. All the same software, just bigger, fatter letters. 😉

And on tty1? pkgmk is running. I have to rebuild version 1.5.3 of xorg-server, you see. The chance I take in working with a source-based distro is that something might break on an update. That much is painfully obvious right now.

But the comfort I take in working with a source-based distro is that I have some recourse in trying to fix it. Take your pick. 😈

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7 thoughts on “So predictable”

You can rebuild from source using Debian or Ubuntu, that’s what “apt-get source”, “apt-get builddep” and (if the distro doesn’t have the sources) checkinstall are there for.

But I’m with you: I wouldn’t feel the need for X either, if it weren’t for the web, it’s too tied to graphics, so it gets confusing in a text browser.
Your blog seems quite nice in text form, but most don’t, imho 😦

Oh, and if your card supports it you can change the framebuffer resolution to slim those letters 😛